Thursday, August 3, 2017

Another challenge to a military trial in Pakistan

The family of yet another civilian convicted by a Pakistani military court has sought relief in the Sindh High Court. According to this report from The News International:

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the judgment passed by the military court was not maintainable in the eyes of law because the accused should not have been in the custody of the military authorities and tried under the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act (Act No II of 2015) or the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014, which now stood expired, as the petitioners did not belong to any terrorist organisation or group using the name of religion or sect, raise arms or wage a war against Pakistan, as decided by the joint investigation team.

He said [Ali] Rehman was illegally tried and that too in the absence of a counsel, which was a violation of the constitution's Article 10-A. He said Rehman was not allowed to meet family or his lawyer and was not given record of proceedings of the military court to challenge the conviction.

The article does not indicate what sentence Mr. Rehman received. The authorities have been given two weeks to respond.